Part 2 of the Yasawa island hopping trip. Blue lagoon resort situated at the most northerly island of Nacula. There were 3 other resorts situated on the island but we had read amazing reviews on Blue lagoon on trip advisor.

They picked us up in the small fishing boat, and took our luggage over. Again, it just looked like paradise, greeted by music and singing from the local Fijians. They showed us to our accommodation, Lodge 2, a great little room, toilets and shower shared facilities. Immediately we realized that is was very similar to it's sister resort, Octopus, but on a smaller scale which was actually nicer. The staff were very friendly and over the next few days we met a lot of nice people. We fell in with a couple from UK, guy was from Glasgow, Michael McLoughlin and his English girlfriend Caz, and an American couple from Colorado, Will and Carol. We basically knocked about with them through lunches and dinner.

After the first night dinner they projected the movie Top Gun (super cheese) onto a giant screen/sheet tied between palm trees on the beach

We spent a lot of our time on the islands snorkeling and exploring the ocean with our $5 a day rental snorkel gear. Very cheap and the coral in both resorts was fantastic, especially blue lagoon where we decided to rent the digital under water camera for the day for 50 bucks. We were snap happy and enjoyed it, seeing plenty of fish just on the drop off from the coral into the sea, Caoimhe was in her prime and in fact found it difficult to get her out of the water for the entire trip. We got up close to some amazing fish, angel fish, wide mouthed (freaky) mackerels, trumpet fish, clown fish and plenty more. We were in heaven and a great way to cool down from the Fijian sun.

The Crab Race

On the 2nd night we had seafood at our table, fantastic meal. Afterwards there was Crab Racing, were we picked our own crabs, $3 each and they all raced from an inner circle to the outer circle. Each had their shell numbered in tip-ex to identify each

. Unfortunately our little crabs are still racing, the big fella won, but would have easily have failed the drug test. Next day Caoimhe happened to see Crab No.31 on his way out of the office haha

The Hike & The Scrap – Charlie V Tripod

That morning I decided I’d try another 1 of these hikes to the peek of the island. I get pretty restless lying about reading and snorkeling all day and thought I’d give Blue Lagoon hike a crack, after having conquered Octopus. It was 4 hours, not as strenuous as Octopus, but heat was stronger and sweated the bit out. The views from the peak were impressive, we could see the whole Yasawa chain of islands honeymoon island and the place where the filmed the movie 'Blue Lagoon’, which I must watch actually. We passed through the local Nacula village and school also, pretty basic living but looked like a nice community.

Whilst walking the hike, the resort dog, Charlie followed us the whole way, a really friendly dog (which happened to be the dog the volunteer English vets operated on the week before, who we met actually @ Octopus). On the way back, we followed the coastal beach route, where he was met by a neighboring resort dog, and got torn to shreds, fairly disgusting to watch, the other dog tore a hole through Charlie’s neck

. In between all of which a guest from that resort, who we met before tried breaking it up, by using his belt to whip Charlie (WTF) and hurl both dogs 6 meters in the air and into the sea. The same guy ended up get bit in the leg leaving him with a deep gash by the dog he actually was protecting. It didn’t deter them, proper scrap, poor Charlie came off the worse.

On returning to the resort, the manager, an Aussie lady informed us that Charlie is never out of fights. At lunch I bumped into HE-MAN and his bandaged up leg. Being from a different resort he obviously had a different view of Charlie, seemingly last month Charlie blinded the same dog buy biting out his eye ball, yes his flippin eye ball. Not only that, but Charlie also ripped half his leg off last year (which I hadn’t noticed), and that other dog is now called Tripod haha. If I were your man, I’d be getting that bite checked out. As I type this, Charlie is lying under a hammock exhausted, with blood pouring out of his neck. Charlie really has been in the wars lately, he got the snip last week and the month before he managed to get stung by a stingray whilst in the water. Poor Charlie.

Each resort we had been to would have their own Welcome Ceremony. In each we would sit in a circle with the locals and they would play their guitars and sing to us all

. We would then start to drink ‘Cava’, their local drink, a plant extract of some sort. It tasted like saw dust and had our tongues numb, very strange. A few days later Caoimhe decided to do a Blue Lagoon/Nacula village visit with other guests. I decided not to as I was busted from the hike that morning. On their visit Caoimhe was roped into some tribal dancing and music. They got a tour of the school, met the kids and visited the local Church were there were a few different religions, catholic being one of them, and Caoimhe the only Catholic guest, having to explain to everybody what the stations of the cross were lol. Also, she learned that the drink we had been drinking, Cava, was a narcotic drug. Great bit of craic waa. Haha

It’s funny to meet people just starting out on their year trip, whilst we are now at the end of ours. Most of the guests are either on honeymoon or at some point of their year away travelling, the rest simply on their holidays from NZ or OZ. We have met all sorts of characters from all over the world here in Fiji – English, Americans (Colorado family), Aussies, Scots, Kiwis, Swedish… For what ever reason, we have found the people a lot more friendlier in Blue Lagoon.

On our final night, the 6 of us found a table, had a good feed and a bottle of red wine (I actually drink red wine these days, which I never thought would be the case)

. After dinner around 9 o’clock we had a volleyball tournament, a muck around really, you could head it, kick it, let it bounce once, and in the meantime get free shots (I’d about 8), needless to say it got funnier as the game went on with about 10 a side on the court under lights on the beach. Played quite a bit of volleyball and hikes etc. to keep active, I need to be at something. Went to bed that night when Caoimhe ordered me to take a shower before getting into bed, my feet were black and tops of my toes bleeding from kicking the volleyball, not a wise move. We are enjoying getting a nice little tan for a change, it’s been 6 months since the Australian summer. Bite count is pretty low considering (it’s me), it’s Nadi in the mainland which can cause havoc with them mossies.

Next morning, we checked out, Yasawa flyer at lunch time (passed 1 of Abromovic’s boats), headed back to Nadi with suitcases full of washing. Putting our Robinson Crusoe island visit out by an extra day to get our washing done and organize east coast USA trip. Hopefully Nadi Bay resort can take us in for the next couple of nights. We might even bump into Moss and James, they are probably still glued to them bar stools.

This time next week we will be in LA and in the Northern Hemisphere, sure arriving home is only a month away now.